1. Field of the Invention
Object of the present invention is a mobile jaw vice for clamping and unclamping vehicles to and from a traction cable of a transport system.
2. Description of the Background
The traction-cable rail transport systems currently known make use of synchronised braking or acceleration rollers of the vehicle (usually a cab) in the proximity of terminal or intermediate stations of a determined funicular route to be covered; a two mobile-jaw vice, connected to the cab floor, is used for unclamping the vehicle from the traction cable when the rollers decelerate the vehicle and, analogously, the jaws of the vice are driven so as to grip the cable when the run restarts and the vehicle is accelerated.
Nevertheless, the jaws used exhibit some disadvantages during the closing step, above all if the vehicle makes wide oscillations, due to the load or to dynamic stresses; in fact in this case also the traction cable may oscillate widely, thus significantly reducing the area of the portion of the grip synchronism. Moreover, the passage from the traction through cable to traction through draft wheels can cause serious defects, such as for example, pulsed stresses and excessive wear of the mechanical members on which the above cable can engage, in case the rollers are arranged in determined positions adapted to follow particular routes such as, for example, curvilinear and at the same time, rising trajectories.